Legal Thriller Author Reveals Easy Ways To Spot Natural Disaster Rip-offs

Amateur con artists of all stripes find that conning the government is the easiest scam of all Finagle’s Law of Bureaucracy: The first myth of management efficiency is that it exists, worked well for the exploiters of Hurricane Katrina.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, rank amateur con artists had a field day, not even needing the benefits of any particular rip-off training. Collectively they ripped about everything ripable from FEMA’s pockets, including the lining. Here is just a sampling of the “enrichment activities” which took place at taxpayer expense as reported by a Senate Investigating Committee:

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